International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)

ISSN: 2278-0181
Vol. 3 Issue 4, April - 2014

Study on Strength Characteristics of River Sand

in Combination with Cement and Waste Tire
Rubber Chips

Shubhashish1, Dr. Ankit Gupta2

1
P.G. Student, Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology, H.P., India
2
Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology, H.P., India

Abstract— In the present study, an attempt has been made to
determine the utility of industrial wastes in the stabilization of
river sand. Cement and waste tire rubber has been considered to
investigate their potential in stabilizing sand. They were mixed in
sand in varying percentages so as to find their optimum
proportions needed for the effective stabilization of sand with the
help of standard proctor test. California bearing ratio tests and
unconfined compressive strength tests were performed on the
optimum mixes. Results indicate that the peak strength value has
been obtained at 8% cement and 2% waste tire rubber chips by
weight of river sand.
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Keywords— River sand stabilization, cement, waste tire rubber
chips, California bearing ratio tests and unconfined compressive
strength.
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by the usage of scrap tire rubber and synthetic fibers. He tested
the reinforced and unreinforced samples for unconfined
compression, shear box and resonant frequency test and found
positive results for their usage as reinforced material for the
modification of clayey soil. (R. Ayothiraman et.al 2011) stated
that soil stabilized with waste tire is found to have the CBR
value of about 22% higher than that of the CBR value of un-
stabilized soil. As seen from the above literature review there
are limited information about the combined use of river sand,
cement and tire rubber chips. In this paper an attempt has been
made to study the strength characteristics of this composite as
a sub-base material through laboratory investigation.
II. EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM

I. INTRODUCTION A. Materials:
Industrialization and urbanization has increased at great pace Beas river sand has been used in the present study. According
in India in recent year’s which results in the production of to ASTM classification system (ASTM D2487-11), this sand
many industrial wastes which are hazardous to our was put into the category of poorly graded nature and its basic
environment. Waste tire is one of them which are found physical properties are given in Table 1. Cement used in this
abundantly in India. Waste tire has several advantageous study was Ordinary Portland cement of grade 43 while the tire
applications in civil engineering as it possesses properties such rubber chips were procured from Jalandhar and cut in to size
as strength, resiliency, flexibility and high frictional resistance. range of 10 mm×10 mm for the use in experiments.
Thus it can be reused usefully for the purpose of construction
Table 1: Physical properties of sand
instead of burring or dumping. Rao and Dutta reported that the
total amount of discarded tire in India were of the order of
112millions per year. (Humphrey et.al 1992) stated that tire Property tested Values
chips could be used as light weight land fill material. (Eldin Specific gravity 2.63
et.al 1993) stated that tire chips could be used for low strength Coefficient of uniformity (Cu) 1.69
ductile concrete. (Bernal et.al 1996) stated that the uses of tire Coefficient of curvature (Cc) 1.04
rubber chips are useful for construction of pavement as they Optimum moisture content (%) 6.44
provide beneficial utility in economical, technical and Maximum dry density(gm/cc) 1.5094
environmental terms. Use of tire rubber chips provides good Permeability(cm/s) 2.46 ×10-3
settlements and drainage which avoids the increment of pore Soaked CBR (%) 8.9
water pressure. (Bosscher et.al 1997) stated about the
possibility of using waste tire chips in civil engineering
application such as in road construction. (Brooms et.al 1999) Table 2: Physical properties of cement:
concluded that tire chips could be used as a light weight
backfill materials in retaining structures. (Ghani et al 2002) Property tested Values
stated that scrap tires constitutes approximately 26% carbon Type of cement used OPC grade 43
black, 47 % natural rubber, 30 % synthetic rubber and its use Optimum moisture content 30.71
depends upon the shredding process. (Akbulut et.al 2007) (%)
investigated that improvement in the behavior of clayey soil Maximum dry density (gm/cc) 1.445

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 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
ISSN: 2278-0181
Vol. 3 Issue 4, April - 2014

B. Method of Testing decreases to a value of 1.623g/cm3for 12% of cement content

All the laboratory tests were conducted in accordance with as shown in “fig. (2) and fig. (3)”.
ASTM standards. The specific gravity tests and the standard
proctor tests were conducted in accordance with ASTM D854- 1.7
10 and ASTM D698-07e1 respectively for sand and cement as
presented in Table 1 and Table 2. The particle size distribution
of sand was done as per ASTM D6913-04 (2009) and its 1.65
respective gradation curve is given in Figure 1. The sizes of

Dry density (g/cc)

the compaction molds used were of 101 mm diameter and 125
mm height. From the compaction test OMC and MDD of 1.6
different mixes were obtained. The California bearing ratio
tests were performed in laboratory in accordance with ASTM
D1883-05. The sizes of samples were of 150mm diameter and 1.55
125mm height. To prepare CBR test samples, they were
compacted statically at maximum dry density and optimum sand:cement::96:4
moisture content. Surcharge weight of 50N was used during 1.5 sand:cement::94:6
the testing. A metal penetration plunger of diameter 50 mm sand:cement::92:8
and 100 mm long was used to penetrate the samples at the rate sand:cement::90:10
1.45 sand:cement::88:12
of 1.25 mm/minute using computerized CBR testing machine.
Unconfined compressive strength test has been performed on 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
all the optimum mixes according to ASTM D2166-13. The
water content (%)
samples were prepared in the UCS mold at optimum moisture
content and maximum dry density by compacting the sample
with a temping rod so as to obtain the final sample of aspect
Figure 2: Compaction characteristics of river sand and cement mixes.
ratio of 2 i.e. 38mm diameter and 76mm length.

100 1.7
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1.68
maximum dry density(gm/cc)

1.66
80
Percentage finer (%)

1.64
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1.62

60 1.6
1.58
1.56
40 1.54
1.52
1.5
20
5 10 15 20
cement content(%)
0
0.01 0.1 1 10
Figure 3: Maximum dry density variation of sand with cement content
Particle size (mm)
The initial increase in the dry density of sand happened on the
addition of fine grained cement particles due to its binding
nature and filling up of the voids in the coarse grained sand
Figure 1: Particle size distribution of river sand particles. But after adding a certain percentage of cement the
density decreases because of the segregation in the mix with
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS the extra amount of cement.
A. Compaction Tests:
The sand used in this study has maximum dry density of
1.50gm/cm3 with the optimum moisture content of 6.44%. On
mixing cement in sand in the varying percentages from 4%
to12% the maximum dry density of the mix increases from
1.50g/cm3 to 1.68g/cm3 up to 8% cement content while it

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 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
ISSN: 2278-0181
Vol. 3 Issue 4, April - 2014

18 1.7
optimum moisture content(%)

16
1.68
14

Maximum dry density (g/cc)

1.66
12
1.64
10
1.62
8
6 1.6

4 1.58

2 1.56
0 1.54
0 5 10 15 1.52
cement content(%) 1.5
0 2 4 6 8
tire chips (% )
Figure 4: Optimum moisture content variation of sand with cement content

Also, on adding cement in the sand the optimum moisture

content of the cement-sand mix increases because the cement Figure 6: Maximum dry density variation of sand-cement composite with tire
rubber chip content
particles are finer in nature i.e. they has larger specific surface
area than that of pure sand and hence the mix consisting of
cement and sand requires higher water content to attain the 18
maximum dry density. The trend of variation of optimum
moisture content with varying percentages of sand is shown in 17
RT Optimum water content (W%)

“fig. (4)”.
16
sand:cement:tc ::91.77:7.98:0.25
15
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sand:cement:tc ::91.54:7.96:0.5
1.8
sand:cement:tc ::91.08:7.92:1
sand:cement:tc ::90.16:7.84:2 14
sand:cement:tc ::88.32:7.68:4
1.7 sand:cement:tc ::86.48:7.52:6 13
Dry density (g/cc)

12
1.6
11

1.5 10
0 2 4 6 8
tire chips (% )
1.4

Figure 7: Optimum moisture content variation of sand–cement composite with

1.3
tire rubber chip content
5 10 15 20
Water content (%) It was observed that maximum dry density (MDD) of the
sand-cement optimum mix decreases with the inclusion of tire
Figure 5: Compaction characteristics of river sand, cement and tire chips (tc).
in that optimum mix i.e. sand: cement::92: 8 mix. When tire
chips were further added in cement- sand optimum mix dry
density increases up to 2% and thereafter it decreases. The
initial decrease in density occurs due to the reason that tire
rubber chips are light weight material and causes more voids
and thus density decreases. Dry density increases up to 2% tire
chips afterwards it decreases due to segregation.
The water content-dry density curves of optimum sand-
cement composite with rubber tire chips is shown in figure 5.

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 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
ISSN: 2278-0181
Vol. 3 Issue 4, April - 2014

The maximum dry density variation and optimum moisture C. UCS Tests:
content variation of sand-cement-tire chips mix with the The unconfined compressive strength results with curing time
varying percentages of tire chips content is shown in figure 6 were shown in figure 9. The UCS value of mix was improved
and 7 respectively. because cement gains strength after the curing effect. The
Thus the final reference mix obtained for testing the strength maximum strength i.e., 90% of cements strength is attained at
characteristics was sand: cement: tire chips:: 90.16:7.84:2. 28 days curing only. The curing period thus increases the UCS
value of the mix.
B. CBR Tests:
700
1800 7Days
14Days 600
1600
28Days
1400 500

stress (KPa)
1200 400 28 Days
14 Days
Load(kg)

1000
300 7 Days

800
200
600
100
400
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0
200
0 1 2 3
strain (%)
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0
0 2.5 5 7.5 10 12.5
Deformation (mm) Figure 9: unconfined compressive strength of reference mix for varying days
of curing period.
Figure 8: CBR values of the reference mixes with varying days of curing
periods. Number of days UCS value of reference
mix (kPa)
Number of days CBR value of reference 7 191.60
mix (%)
14 369.82
7 17.36
28 614.45
14 27.40
28 43.45
IV. CONCLUSION
The improvement in CBR value may be attributed to better This study examined the stress –strain and CBR response of
compaction and packing of the mix particles with addition of river sand stabilized with cement and tire chips. The results
cement and tire waste. The California bearing ratio provides a obtained are concluded below:
basis of designing the sub-grades of flexible pavements. 1) The reference mix obtained on the basis of
Usually, a value of CBR more than 30 is considered to be compaction tests contains 8% cement content and 2%
satisfactory for the design of flexible pavements with traffic of tire chips.
intensity of 1 to 10 million standard axles (msa). Thus, the 2) On mixing cement in different percentages in sand
sand blended with cement and tire waste can be effectively the value of optimum moisture content increases
used in the construction of sub-grades of roads with low traffic while that of maximum dry density initially increases
volume as it has achieved the CBR value more than 5 after up to 8% of cement content and then decreases.
treatment with cement and tire chips. 3) On mixing tire chips in different percentages in the
optimum sand-cement mix the value of optimum
moisture content increases while that of maximum

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 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
ISSN: 2278-0181
Vol. 3 Issue 4, April - 2014

dry density initially increases up to 2% tire chips and 16. D. N. Humphrey and W. L. Nickels, “Tire chips as subgrade insulation
then decreases. and lightweight fill,” in Proceedings of the 18th Annual Meeting of the
Asphalt Recycling and Reclaiming Association, pp. 83–105, Annapolis,
4) The unconfined compressive strength and CBR of Md, USA, 1994.
river sand stabilized with cement and tire chips can
be significantly improved.
5) The improvement in unconfined compressive
strength and CBR value with the curing period was
also observed.
6) After 28 days the UCS value of the final reference
mix was 614.45 kPa and CBR value was 43.45%
which were substantially larger than that for
untreated sand.

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